Prophetic Ahādith in Condemnation of Racism

“Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you” [al-Hujurāt 49:13].

In the introduction to his treatise Prophetic Ahādith in Condemnation of Racism, the esteemed scholar Dr. ʿAbd al-Salām b. Burjis writes,

To proceed: Indeed, many of the people who ascribe to Islam in these times have been tried by this disgraceful characteristic. Its stem extends back to the mushrikūn (polytheists) of al-Jāhiliyyah (pre-Islamic times of ignorance), and waging war against this characteristic is an objective from the objectives of the mission of the Messenger of Allah to the world. This characteristic is the tribalism and racism from the times of al-Jāhiliyyah, which are a starting point of departure from the Sharīʾah and Judgment of Allah, and these are a foundation of corruption in the Religion and worldly affairs of the people.

After tracing this evil characteristic to al-Jāhiliyyah, the Shaykh clarifies that the one who calls to this “will be from the rock piles of Hell,” just as he establishes that the one who calls to ‘asabiyyah (tribalism, nationalism) “is not from us.” His commentary on the the twenty-two traditions in this collection is at once concise and reflective. After citing the narration of Abū Naḍrah al-Mundhir b. Mālik b. Qutʿah, in which the Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu Alayhi wa Sallam) clarifies that “the Arab has no excellence over the non-Arab, nor does the non-Arab have any excellence over the Arab, nor does a white person have any excellence over a black one, nor does a black person have any excellence over a white one, except through taqwá” (Ḥadith no. 7), Shaykh ʿAbd al-Salām comments, “So when the Lord is One, and the father of mankind in one, then this does not leave any room for claim of excellence without taqwá of Allah” (p. 29). To further clarify these narrations, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Salām quotes the great Imāms of the Religion, like Ibn Ḥajr, al-Munawi, Ibn Taymiyyah, et al throughout the treatise.

When our Shaykh ‘Ali b. Yahya al-Ḥaddādi learned of several bigoted activists in our lands calling to nationalism and tribalism—in the name of Salafiyyah—he recommended that Shaykh ʿAbd al-Salām’s treatise be translated and disseminated to help combat this disgraceful characteristic. We praise Allah for its translation, and pray that it reaches every masjid, library, schoolhouse, and home.